College football: Picks of the Week

I’ll have pre- and post-game links for Cal, Stanford and San Jose State on Friday night and then a full load of material through the weekend, including:

My AP football and basketball ballots, a BCS update, weekly grades for the local teams and a look at the Pac-12 bowl picture, which should be reasonably clear when the USC-UCLA game ends Saturday night.

I may also squeeze in a realignment update with Brigham Young reportedly not headed to the Big East (although I wouldn’t be surprised if that heated back up).

For San Jose State fans: Nothing will happen in regard to possible membership in the Mountain West until Boise State and/or Air Force and/or San Diego State announce they are leaving the MWC — if any of them announce they are leaving the MWC.

Last week: 2-3Season: 29-30-1Five-star special: 8-4

All picks against the spread.Lines taken from vegasinsider.com.

ARKANSAS (plus-14) at LSU (Friday): As with the Iron Bowl: Too many. The last five have been decided by a total of 19 points, and the Hogs have won three of them. Pick: Arkansas.

ALABAMA (minus-19.5) at AUBURN: Home team getting almost three touchdowns in the most intense of rivalries — not a combination to discount, no matter how good the favorite is. Pick: Auburn.

IOWA STATE (plus-29) at OKLAHOMA: Has all the trappings of a, well, trap game: Sooners suffered a crushing loss last week and have Bedlam on Dec. 3. Pick: Iowa State.

MICHIGAN STATE (minus-7) at NORTHWESTERN: Love the Wildcats as a home dog, especially in their home finale: They’ve won seven of ‘em in a row. Pick: Northwestern.

SAN JOSE STATE (plus-5.5) at FRESNO STATE: Good spot for the Spartans as road dog with no pressure against a team that appears to be playing out the string for a coach on the hot seat. This could be it for Pat Hill in Fresno. Pick: San Jose State.

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Jon hope you are right that SJSU beats the bulldogs. It would be an amazing way to end the football season for SJSU. Too bad the loses by one point to Utah State and the crazy loss to Idaho when we had them on the run in the first half. SJSU will have an amazing year in 2012. Thanks for the good coverage from you and your staff.

Papa John

So let’s see, as a Stanford fan, I want Auburn to beat Alabama, LSU to beat Arkansas, and UVa to beat Va Tech. That would at least give Stanford a reasonable shot at reaching the magical fourth place in the BCS standings and an auto bid in a BCS Bowl not named Rose.

And for good measure, I want OSU to beat UO so that Stanford gets one more home game and a shot at the Rose Bowl.

Too bad it’s likely that only one of those four events will occur (LSU over Ark, of course).

http://sfbaysports.com Dman

I like Brandon Rutley as a third down back in the NFL, that guy is very talented, St. Louis Rams should pick him up in the late rounds of next year’s draft.

http://www.voteobrien.org/login.asp Cardinal Rule

@Papa John: I think you should have also hoped for an Arkansas upset of LSU as long as you’re at it. For good measure then, Georgia would have to beat Arkansas and Oklahoma would have to beat Oklahoma State. Even though it’s a more tortured path to the NCG than your scenario, I think we would need less help from the computers. Other than those added outcomes on the wish list, I’m with you.

stanfordfan

So Jon, at 29-30-1, your results are the same as throwing darts at a dartboard… You might want to try that for your AP rankings…

Futbol Thots

You have to really wonder what’s going on with Virginia Tech’s ranking. This is the conference that historically gets too many bowl bids and gets blown out in most. This is the team that got blown away by Stanford in last year’s Orange Bowl. What’s going on? Is there actually an Eastern Bias?

Real potent offense the ‘Hogs’ have Jon. lol. Just another typical SEC offense to be quite honest.

keysclubber

“Wait till next year!” How many times have we heard that from Spartan fans? It’s always wait till next year! I think this waiting for the magical next year gives hope to the weary Spartan die-hards. I guess hope is something to hang on to? The team does seem to be gatting a little better but not much. Amazing year in 2012? Dream on!

OT

@keyclubber:

Sparta fans are now talking about 2013, when SJSU is expected to join the Mountain West Conference.

Too bad the MWC will look like this in 2013:

Wyoming
Colorado State
(Air Force, if it were to chicken out and not join the BIG EAST)
New Mexico
Utah State
Nevada
UNLV
Fresno State
San Jose State
Hawaii (football only, but only through 2013)

MWC 2013 will consist of the leftovers from the MWC and WAC after the PAC, XII, and BIG EAST pick the carcass clean. No Utah, no BYU, no TCU, no Boise State, no San Diego State.

==

Hawaii took an 80% TV pay cut (from $5 million/year in 2011 to $1 million/year in 2012 and 2013) to join the MWC in football only, with no guarantee that Oceanic Time Warner Cable will be willing to carry the mtn to allow Hawaiians to watch the Warriors play MWC games.

I suspect Hawaii will not renew with the MWC in 2014 and will go independent instead (if Hawaii can’t get into the BIG EAST as a football-only member.)

Ranger John

Hey Key, Coach Toomey never complained once about having only 53 scholarship players (compared to 85 for EVERYBODY else) and that is 50 more walk-ons for USC.

Thus the current staff has a historic year being ON PAR with the numbers of all the other schools…the uneven playing field is becoming more level.

I saw the UNR close loss, the Idaho (out coached game), and listened to the Utah State last second win. Very tight games all!

There are lots of other schools that are not bowl eligible, but not that many with second year coaches.

It was an entertaining season and we have some of the brightest young receivers playing as well as a great linebacker corp.

Woj

What’s with LSU, Alabama, Arkansas, and Virginia Tech winning all of these games?! Sounds like east coast BIAS to me.